this post was submitted on 04 Sep 2025
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American conservatism circa 1776 (media.piefed.social)
submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by PugJesus@piefed.social to c/historymemes@piefed.social
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[–] PugJesus@piefed.social 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Most societies are led by rich assholes whose primary goal is growing their power and wealth. Some, in world history, however, are worse than others. The issue of non-representation of American colonists in British parliament was an issue severe enough that it caused deep divides in Britain over the issue, and was a matter that created deep and genuine feeling in many parts of the American population - not just the rich - which led to the Revolutionary War.

[–] justOnePersistentKbinPlease@fedia.io 1 points 1 month ago (2 children)
  1. Unrest in Britain. That was caused by the crown being broke from the seven years war, and the resulting cuts and tax increases on their side. Mostly because both sides were broke because of the war in North America and the scale of the conflict in Europe.
  2. That was literally the rich propaganda. Most of the "intolerable acts" were things that were only going to affect the rich, not the common person. Also, Ben Franklin personally came up with some of the acts and was surprised by the pushback.

The deep issues, at their core:

  1. The rich colonialists owned all of the land, leaving none for everyone else. Through their ownership of the media, rich assholes like founding fathers Sam and John Adams astroturfed support for the revolution by forcing their papers to run fake articles/letters and paying gangs to riot.
  2. Housing troops was standard practice. what changed was that the prewar british commander was a corrupt moron who paid out instead of just enforcing the standard practice.
  3. The upper merchant class near-universally defrauded British backs with loan fraud. They would make a shell company, get a loan, shut down the shell company and run away with the money. The stamp act was going to prevent this.
  4. That the crown wanted to thank the natives who really won the war for the British by leaving them alone.

Crucible of War by Fred Anderson is a good place to start on this to undo the US propaganda.

[–] PugJesus@piefed.social 2 points 1 month ago

Unrest in Britain. That was caused by the crown being broke from the seven years war, and the resulting cuts and tax increases on their side. Mostly because both sides were broke because of the war in North America and the scale of the conflict in Europe.

I am literally talking about British members of parliament conceding the point that non-representation of the colonists was a legitimate and legally indefensible grievance, not generic 'unrest'.

That was literally the rich propaganda. Most of the "intolerable acts" were things that were only going to affect the rich, not the common person.

Fucking what?

  1. The rich colonialists owned all of the land, leaving none for everyone else. Through their ownership of the media, rich assholes like founding fathers Sam and John Adams astroturfed support for the revolution by forcing their papers to run fake articles/letters and paying gangs to riot.

This is an utterly bizarre point - that land was plentiful and yeomen farmers influential was one of the core reasons why immigration to the American colonies was still highly desirable - land ownership was much more widely distributed amongst the American colonists than in Britain.

  1. That the crown wanted to thank the natives who really won the war for the British by leaving them alone.

I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.

Crucible of War by Fred Anderson is a good place to start on this to undo the US propaganda.

I've not read it, but seeing as it appears to be a history of the Seven Years' War, I'm dubious that it backs your later assertions.

[–] 0_o7@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The US has their own version of history and you cannot pry it out of their heads. They learned it from their daddy Britain, of course.

They instinctively forget propaganda is a thing and the US has forever tried to forcefully control the narrative that they're superior and virtuous in every aspect. That's why they aggressively control most social network platform and mainstream news.

Also, this OP is known for posting historical posts so he could slip in these tid bits himself.

[–] PugJesus@piefed.social 3 points 1 month ago

Ah, the "English propaganda is the main source used by Wikipedia" guy.